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Brevard deputy who survived gun battle named Deputy of the Year

He's a decorated war hero who came back to Central Florida and took a job as a deputy with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. He recently survived a gun battle that played out on local streets and has now been awarded Florida's Deputy of the Year. Dan Billow reports.

He's a decorated war hero who came back to Central Florida and took a job as a deputy with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Deputy Nick Worthy recently survived a gun battle that played out on local streets and has now been awarded Florida's Deputy of the Year.

The gunfight, which happened last year in Cocoa, illustrates the dangers that police face on the streets every day.

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On the night of March 9, 2015, the road was littered with shells after a sheriff’s patrol car was riddled with bullets. The bullets had been aimed at Worthy.

Worthy had just driven into a firestorm. A man was shooting in a neighborhood near Aurora Street in Cocoa.

“The bullet come through the window and went through the window and come through the sofa,” a caller told 911 before Worthy arrived. “See now, he, somebody ... he’s still shooting," the person said.

Gunfire could be heard in the background.

It was up to Worthy, on his own, to save lives, including his own. As soon as he drove up, the gunman started firing at him rapidly, he said.

“The first round going through the windshield missed me by an inch, and then, the windshield, the glass, when I was falling down. I could hear the car hiss, snap,” Worthy said.

“We thought it was like rockets, or Fourth of July-type stuff,” witness Arthur Council said.

Worthy, a decorated war veteran and Army Ranger, fought with the gunman, and from his back, shot him down. For that, the Florida Sheriff's Association has given Worthy its Deputy of the Year Award, and has released a video revealing new details of his exploits.